Quinn laughed.“That works too.It always surprises me when I hear someone young say something I’d expect to hear from my great-grandfather.I keep thinking maybe we’ve progressed as a society, and then stuff like this pops up, and I know we haven’t.It’s kind of sad.I wonder if we could educate Viktor.”
“I love your optimism, but you only have a couple more days.He’s checking out on Sunday, which means he has until then towooyou, as he called it.”Heath yawned.
“You need to get some sleep.Thanks for playing along today and for giving me the heads-up about Viktor.”Quinn rubbed at the tightness in her chest.“I feel even worse now that I’ve dragged you into this with me.”
“Don’t worry about it.It’s what friends do.”He yawned again.“I have a deadline for an outside project I need to get working on if I’m to sleep at all.Try to get some rest.”
“An outside project?”She remembered he’d been working on something last week, which he hadn’t seemed to want anyone to look at.Was that it?
Heath hesitated so long, she wondered if he would brush off her question.But then he heaved out a breath.
“Look, this isn’t widely known.I mean, Lia and Coop know, but not my parents.I’m waiting until after the stress of the festival to tell them.”
He explained about being a game design programmer.Quinn was familiar with the online video game REKD and even played it sometimes when she was in the mood for a good battle, but she hadn’t known Heath had any connection with the company.He’d never said a word about it.
“And you’re doing that as well as everything your parents need to have done?”
“Yeah.”The single word carried so much weariness, it made her heart twist.
“How long do you think you’ll be able to do both?Either the jobs will suffer, or your health will.You have to sleep sometime.”
Heath chuckled.“Or both.I think I’ll be all right once the Harvest Festival is over.It’s the added work associated with that which is causing my lack of sleep.I do believe we should hire somebody else part-time to help with the website anyway.My parents are full of ideas for activities to host here all year round.The more we grow, the more important it will be to keep our website current.It’d be great for business if people wanted to check it out every day to see what’s happening here.”
“I’ll be honest that I never considered all you do.”Quinn said, feeling a little humbled.“You’re pretty amazing, you know that?”
“Well, I appreciate thatyouthink so,” he said.“Goodnight.”
“Night.”
Quinn ended the call and stared at her monitor for a few minutes before opening her email.Yes, there was something from Viktor.Did he not think Heath would tell her about their little conversation?The viscount had seriously underestimated his competition, if that were the case.
When had Heath become competition?
7
Heath crashed and woke early rather than trying to work on the REKD programming while he was so tired.It ended up being a wise decision, and he felt good about the work he submitted before dashing down the stairs to join his family for breakfast.
“Are you all right?”his mother asked.
“You look like you’re burning the candle at both ends,” his father added, peering over his reading glasses.
After talking with Quinn about his responsibilities last night, Heath was tempted to mention hiring someone specifically to handle the website.He glanced at his sister, and she gave him an encouraging nod.Beside her, Coop did the same thing.But should he bring up his new part-time job?
“Dad, the more stuff you guys offer on the website, the more important it is that you have someone who can handle it immediately,” Heath began.
“But you’ve done a terrific job with it,” his mother jumped in.“I hear from people all the time how easy it is to navigate and how attractive it is.I don’t know if anyone else can do it as well as you do.”
Heath’s stomach tightened, and he found he’d lost his appetite.He didn’t want this to turn into a battle, and his gut told him they might not be ready to hear his news.
“I understand what Heath’s saying,” Lia said, coming to his rescue.“He’s a programmer, and now you’ve put more on his plate by giving him all the security stuff.Having that viscount here already added to Heath’s workload—and that with almost no advance notice.You say he looks like he’s burning a candle at both ends, but it ought to be obvious to you why he’s having to do that.He has a life, you know.Everything Heath does shouldn’t tie back to working here.”
Their parents exchanged chagrined glances.They turned their gazes on Heath.His dad put down the paperwork he’d been going through and leaned forward.
“Have we been overworking you, son?”
Heath didn’t want to give his parents the wrong impression because when he finally confessed about the REKD Gaming job, they’d feel like he’d lied to them.
“No, but I can see a time when it’s going to take more than one IT person to handle everything.”
